Definition of "accessary"

accessary

/əkˈsɛsəɹi/

noun
plural accessaries
1. (law) Someone who accedes to some act, now especially a crime; one who contributes as an assistant or instigator to the commission of an offense.
adjective
comparative more accessary, superlative most accessary
1. (law) Accompanying as a subordinate; additional; accessory; especially, uniting in, or contributing to, a crime, but not as chief actor. See accessory.
  Quotations
  To both their deaths thou shalt be accessary.
  c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii]
  Amongst many secondary and accessary causes that support monarchy, these are not of least reckoning.
  1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916